r 

BV 

.GGz 

L 




J ; ■% 


» 


C N WAY 








: ': 
• 






■ ■ t 




Class 3/ 42 i! _ 
Book__ 2Js_ 

CopyrightN . _ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



\ 



PRINCIPLES 



OF 



SACRED ELOQUENCE 



BY 



JOHN PLACID CONWAY, O.P., 

Sac. Theol. Mag. 



Strip me of everything else in the world, but leave me Eloquence. 

— St. Gregory Nazianzen. 



NEW YORK: 

JOSEPH F. WAGNER. 



C \<\Q 






Jfrifnl 42b£tat 



LIBRARY of OONeSESS 
Two Copies Receiveq 

NOV 28 1904 

Copynem tiury 
TUy.2%, iqoit 
CLASS <** XXc No: 

COFY £$. 



REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.L. 

Censor Librorun 



imprimatur 



^JOANNES M. FARLEY, D.D. 

Archiepiscopus 



New York, September 5, 1904 



Copyright, 1904, by Joseph F. Wagner, New York 



CONTENTS. 



FIRST PART 

PAGE 

I. Oratory : Its Nature and Causes i 

II. Its Fourfold Cause in General 3 

III. The Efficient Cause 4 

IV. The Final Cause 9 

» 

V. The Formal Cause 10 

VI. The Material Cause 14 



SECOND PART 

The Practical Art of Preaching. 

I. The Various Classes of Oratory 21 

II. Analysis of a Discourse 23 

III. Invention and Disposition of Arguments 27 

IV. Standard Qualities 31 

V. Expression, or Language 33 

VI. The Use of Tropes and Figures 34 

VII. Written and Extempore Sermons 38 

/III. Delivery and Gesture , 39 

IX. Homilies, Prones, Conferences 47 

X. Dogmatic and Moral Discourses 48 

XI. Panegyrics and Catechizing 50 

XII. Missions and Retreats 51 



SACRED ELOQUENCE 



First Part. 



L— ORATORY: ITS NATURE AND CAUSES. 

" Strip me of everything else in the world, but leave me eloquence." — St. 
Gregory Nazianzen. 

Oratory, as an Art, was first mooted by Empedocles (B. C. 450), but the 
oldest existing treatise on the subject is Aristotle's "Rhetoric." Cicero, at a 
later date, dealt more comprehensively with it in his Essays, as in " The 
Invention of the Topics," " The Orator, or Brutus," " The Divisions of 
Oratory," " Of Famous Orators," and " The Orator." In this last work 
the author, in three books, enters minutely into all the details of the art. 
" The Institutions " of Quintilian, in twelve books, is the fullest work of the 
kind in the classical age. Modern writers have added little to the art; their 
task has been the application of given principles. These pages, in dealing 
with the second part, or Practical Oratory, are mainly an epitome of Cicero 
and Quintilian, supplemented by details according to modern usage. 

What is Oratory ? — It may be defined as the " Art of swaying minds by 
conviction of the truth through speech." It is something beyond mere 
knowledge, yet less than a science, since science is the result of demonstration 
from strictly first principles. Oratory also uses demonstration, but of a 
secondary order. Its true status is that it is an Art, because of the artificial 

1 



2 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

structure of its parts. Hence the Roman Orator speaks of it as " Ars bene 
disserendi " — " The Art of discoursing well." Being above the mechanical 
order, its place is among the Fine Arts. 

There are two classes of the Fine Arts: (i) Those which build in time; 
(2) those which build in space. The former is of a subtler order : its 
branches, the Arts themselves — of oratory, music, and poetry, are of a higher 
quality: the second class is in touch with the crafts, and its branches are 
architecture, painting, and sculpture. The Greek Rhetors, Poets, and Dra- 
matists, were as truly artists as the painters, sculptors, or architects: 
Sophocles and Demosthenes were as truly rilled with the artistic sense as 
Phidias or Apelles. If we consider the end of each art in detail, we find that 
Oratory holds the first place in the foremost rank, since its end is not to 
gratify sense, but to sway the mind and heart. To Poetry belongs the 
domain of the imagination, but Oratory claims for its own the highest 
faculty, the intellect, using the imagination as its handmaid, and having for 
its end or aim " the conviction of truth " that is, the bringing home of truth 
to the mind in such fashion as to secure conviction. Passionate it may be, 
reasonable it must be. 

What it is not. — It is no mere declamation; that is acting, or reciting: 
nor is it the heaping up of fancies in a studied speech; the mere weaving of 
fancies in the loom of prose is poetry en deshabille. Oratory to be an Art 
must be inborn, that is, it ought to be the child of our inner self, of our 
own brain in the concept, of our heart in the fervor, and of our lips in the 
utterance. He is no Orator who declaims another's speech; he is a reciter, 
but never an artist, since he lacks the creative faculty. There are others 
again who conceive the thought excellently and fashion the language ad- 
mirably, which when listened to borders on failure, when read is a positive 
treat. These are not Orators but writers, their sphere of action is the press, 
not the pulpit. The best sermon, if merely read, can never carry away an 
audience by storm nor fire it with enthusiasm, as results with words poured 



ITS FOURFOLD CAUSE IN GENERAL. 3 

direct from the heart. It is commendable, nay a necessity in some cases, 
but it is not Oratory. 

Good articulation and gestures belong to Rhetoric, which is the basis of 
Oratory; sound periods of English idioms, a good style, an easy manner, 
are also parts of Rhetoric: sound doctrine is Theology, acute reasoning is 
Logic, the wholesome application of a point or choice of a subject belong to 
common sense : but while all of them are the organic parts of a living whole, 
none of them singly is Oratory. Budding Chrysostoms delude themselves 
by mistaking talent in a branch for excellence in the whole. Oratory is no 
one of all these things, but their happy unison from out our own brain. 

IL— ITS FOURFOLD CAUSE IN GENERAL* 

Sacred Oratory is that noble branch of the foremost Art which has Divine 
Truth for its subject matter, and is the burden of a holy embassy. It is 
advisable to catch one's hare before devising how to cook it, and when in 
hand it is equally profitable to bear in mind that bad cooking spoils good 
meat. So is it with Sacred Oratory. Poor stuff will glare out in spite of 
the most taking delivery, and a bad delivery takes the heart out of the sound- 
est discourse. Cicero and St. Augustine assign the same three ends of all 
Oratory : " Docere, Movere, Placere," " To Instruct, to Stir, to Please." 
These are secured by the matter, the spirit, and the art. 

The exalted character of the preacher lies in this that he images Him 
who is First Truth both in nature and word, since God's word is the faint 
manifestation of Himself. The office of the preacher is to spread the word 
of God which he first possesses, for the servant should be like his Lord in 
the fulness of grace and of truth. 

Oratory as an Art is made up of the harmonious blending of chief causes, 
and these are four : First, there is the " Efficient Cause," which in the 
subject matter tutors and makes the preacher. Secondly, there is the "Final," 



4 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

m 

which comprises the motives of action, being " ambassadors for Christ's sake." 
Thirdly, comes the " Formal," which gives the notes and impress of char- 
acter, thereby revealing the preacher ; and, lastly, the " Material Cause," which 
is the basis of sound doctrine. Every effect is the result of causality: in 
proportion to the elevated standard of the causes will be the dignity or 
worth of the effects. The Holy Ghost who teaches the souls of men through 
our ministry has given four gifts to fashion divine minds; if found in 
" the church taught," a fortiori they ought to be found in " the Church 
teaching." Such gifts are illuminations of fixed character, and each has its 
subject matter: they are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, and Knowledge, 
given either directly from Himself, or indirectly through others. It is 
written, " They shall hear my voice " (John x. 16) ; and again, " Who hears 
you hears Me" (Luke x. 16). A man may be an Orator without them, but 
never can be a Preacher. 

IIL— THE EFFICIENT CAUSE. 

First in order comes the Efficient Cause, which fashions the true preacher. 
St. Thomas assigns three notes to it. (i) The preacher should be ripe in 
virtue. " No one ought to undertake the duty of preaching who has not 
first been chastened and perfected in virtue, as we read of Christ — "Jesus 
began to do and to teach." ("Summa Theol," III., xli., art. 3, ad 1 m.) 
(2) The preacher ought to be free from worldly cares and pursuits. " It 
was befitting Christ that He should have lived a life of poverty, because 
this befits the preacher's office, since the preachers of God's word ought to 
be free from this world's cares in order to be at leisure for their ministry." 
(III., xl., 3.) (3) He ought to cultivate the spirit of retirement. "Christ's 
conduct was for our instruction, and hence to give an example to preachers 
not to be seen constantly in public, our Lord withdrew Himself at times 
from the people." (III., xl., ad 3 m.) St. Thomas furthermore notes the 



THE EFFICIENT CAUSE. 5 

vast difference that is to be observed even among preachers. " Some are 
bound to preach, yet do not preach : these merit chastisement ; as St. Paul 
observes, 'Woe unto me if I do not preach the Gospel.' (I. Cor. ix. 26.) 
Others are bound to preach and do so, yet of compulsion; these merit no 
reward although they escape chastisement. Others again are called by duty 
to preach and they preach willingly, yet look for earthly gains therefrom ; 
such deserve a reward and escape punishment, yet lack superabundant glory. 
Lastly, there are some who, being bound by their state, preach zealously, 
while taking nothing in exchange; these escape punishment, heap up to 
themselves rewards, and obtain superabundant glory." (Commentary on 
I. Cor. ix., Lesson 3.) 

This First or Efficient Cause has its corresponding gift : it is Counsel, or 
the knowledge of discretion, sought first of God and proximately of our 
elders. In homely language, a preacher has a great deal to learn, and must 
be trained. " Ask it of thine elders, and they will teach thee." (Deut. xxxii. 
7.) This knowledge of discretion, or taking counsel, starts the preacher 
safely and keeps him honorably in his career. It teaches four things indis- 
pensable in an otherwise perilous ministry, viz., to whom, when, how, and 
what he ought to discourse upon. This can only be the outcome of ex- 
perience, and beginners must take such counsel of their elders. A word 
upon each. 

■ m I. To whom. The preacher has a definite charge if he be entrusted with 
the care of souls: his duty in the foremost place is to his flock. He ought 
never to go beyond his appointed place, except in the case : (a) of deputation, 
as when called to filled the Lenten pulpit in a cathedral or principal church : 
(b) by virtue of special office, as the Canon Theologian, whose place it is 
to preach or else catechise daily in the mother church: (c) by exceptional 
invitation on some special occasion: (d) or by virtue of his state, as a mis- 
sionary religious, yet he only speaks by request of the bishop or with his 
sanction. The roving commissions of mendicant preachers as spiritual free 



6 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

lances were very properly extinguished at the time of the Council of Trent, 
as leading to abuses. No priest of whatever station may address a flock 
without the faculty of the chief pastor in the diocese. Furthermore, all 
going out into the highways and byways, open air preaching, lecturing upon 
dogmatic points in public halls, and the like, are points for the bishop alone 
to determine. Preaching is a sacramental action, to be exercised from the 
chair of truth, and to the flock. 

2. When. The Council of Trent has appointed the Gospels and Epistles 
to be expounded on all Sundays and certain holydays at the parish Mass. The 
Lord's Day is clearly the day for publishing His word to men, and is 
of obligation. Beyond these the Lenten and Advent seasons lend themselves 
admirably to special courses of sermons, or to missions : Triduums or Oc- 
taves may be undertaken at any time. A friendly exchange of pulpits is a 
boon for a congregation, for even the best speaker must at times pall upon 
his hearers. Discretion, born of counsel, keeps to the fore that saying of 
Ecclesiastes (iii. 7): "All things have their season; there is a time to be 
silent, and a time to speak." It requires as much tact to know when to curtail 
a sermon as when to preach one. Oh that preachers would think more of 
their victims, and less of themselves ! In the presence of wet clothes and a 
damp church the sermon ought to be curtailed, and may be often omitted 
with advantage. 

There is the sin of excess, and of defect: The notorious sinner by excess 
is the man who can not resist the opportunity of blazing away like a reckless 
sportsman. The presence of forty or sixty persons met for Rosary and 
Benediction on a week-night awakens a mental incontinency ; those who come 
to pray are his lawful spoil. He sins against time when: another sins against 
time how long. The body of the sermon is exhausted, then comes " Lastly, 
my brethren," " One word more," and " In conclusion :" he hovers like a 
bird over his peroration, and can not settle. The sinner by defect is the 
man (1) who is always ill at ease in the pulpit and in a hurry to be gone: 



THE EFFICIENT CAUSE. 7 

he comes and stays and goes as if the next train were his last hope : he is 
rapid, and brief to the point of exasperation, which after all may be a kindly 
dispensation of a benevolent providence. (2) There is the timid man who 
is thinking "what will the choir say?" To preach for seven minutes that the 
choir may run riot over Rossini's " Stabat Mater," or like extravaganza, is to 
sin by defect. Doctrine is the bread of life, and has no call to give way 
before cat-gut and human warblers however euphonious. (3) There is the 
moral coward who fears to offend the genteels met on an occasion by speak- 
ing plainly of the unpleasant truths which society ought to hear and does 
not mean to hear. Genteel subjects for genteel ears is cowardly Christianity, 
and a scandalous defect. " Verbum Dei non est alligatum." (II. Titus ii. 9.) 
Others fail in their duty, by trying to preach comfort only. Cardinal New- 
man observes: "Those who make comfort the great subject of their preaching 
seem to mistake the end of their ministry. Holiness is the great end. There 
must be a struggle and a toil here. Comfort is a cordial, but no one drinks 
cordials from morning to night." (A memorandum, September 16, 1824.) 
(4) There is the reckless preacher who neither asks counsel of his elders nor 
takes it when proffered, and consequently inflicts the most unsuitable themes 
judged from the standpoint of time. A preacher was once engaged to 
preach on St. Joseph's day in a church dedicated to the saint, and was given 
well to understand that it was the annual festival : he delivered an excellent 
sermon on " The Catholic Church and Education," which simply roused the 
ire of priest and people. Some men seem born without the bump of judg- 
ment as to the fitness of things and themes. 

The third point which Counsel instills is how one ought to preach. Let 
the speech serve the occasion, the auditors, the position of the speaker, the 
theme, etc. We will speak more fully of this later on when dealing with the 
Art of Oratory. 

Lastly, Counsel will teach us what to preach. In this matter more than 
all others the advice of our elders should be sought. The section which treats 



8 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

of the material cause will supply it. The present point is what not to preach 
about. Some topics ought never to invade the pulpit, such as political 
allusions, national sentiment, social topics, scandals or gossip of the day, etc. 
Far be it from us to witness the Catholic pulpit degraded to the level of many 
Dissenting platforms or Evangelical pulpits, a step down from the arena of 
dignity to the cock-pit of vulgarity, and be forced to hear discourses on such 
subjects as the following, which one sees publicly advertised: "Town Talk," 
"The Great Case," "Tit-Bits," "The Honeymoon," "In Life's Gloaming," 
" Bee-Workers," and many more. The rule which Christ left for preachers 
is " preach the gospel to every creature," and preachers should never fail to 
remember that it is the word which commends the speaker, and not the 
speaker who lends weight to the word. " The word which I have spoken to 
you is not mine own, but his who sent me." (John xiv. 24.) From want of 
humility and honesty in seeking counsel of their elders comes the occasional 
exhibition from younger members in the ministry, such as, " My brethren, 
I propose to address you this morning on the gospel of soap and water;" or, 
" We have all read in the newspapers," etc. 

The Efficient Cause, aided by the light of Counsel, schools and makes the 
preacher an ambassador worthy of a divine function. 



THE FINAL CAUSE. 



IV.-THE FINAL CAUSE. 

The Second Cause is termed the final since it qualifies the end. " Finis 
habet rationem principii," says St. Thomas : " Our motive (end) is our prin- 
ciple of action;" consequently the Final Cause is the first in point of time and 
dignity, and needs but little explanation. In his Commentary on the Prophet 
Isaiah (chapter xli.) St. Thomas sets forth the motives for preaching: these 
are (i) the Spirit of Faith; (2) the Promptings of Zeal; (3) the Greatness 
of the Reward. " The spirit of Truth is the foundation of the whole spiritual 
edifice (I. 11., lxvii., 3, ad 2), ever inclining us to the Truth (II. 11., i., art. 1) 
and to resisting its contraries, viz., the spirit of unbelief and heresy." (II. 11., 
ii., 3, ad 2, et xi. 1.) It is the spirit of the true preacher to spread the faith 
wherewith he is himself imbued, and to combat to the death its contraries. 
"We live in an age of apostasy," (Pius IX.) and have to combat heresy 
and unbelief, hence we must take for our own protective armor "the shield 
of faith" (Eph. vi. 16-23) and resist "strong in faith" (I. Peter v. 9). 
" This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith : who is he that 
overcometh the world but he that believeth," etc. (I. John v. 4, 5). In 
speaking of the second note, which is Zeal, St. Thomas continues : " How- 
soever it be considered, it comes from the intensity of love. The love of 
friendship seeks a friend's good, and the more intense it becomes the more 
it strives to repel all that is opposed to that good: and in this way a man is 
said to be zealous for God, when to the best of his ability he strives to re- 
move whatever is contrary to God's will and honor" (I. 11., xxvii., 4). As 
to the greatness of the reward no more need be said than to recall our 
Lord's own promises — "He that shall have wrought and taught shall be 
called great in the kingdom of heaven " (Matt. v. 19). " They that shall have 
instructed others unto justice shall themselves shine like stars unto all 
eternity" (Dan. xii. 3). High aims born of high motives proceed from 



io SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

Wisdom, and this first of gifts impels God's ministry to the right fulfilling 
of their supernatural ministry. It is human folly, the very antithesis of 
divine wisdom, which ruins the preacher's career and his destiny hereafter: 
the hankering after a bubble reputation instead of God's interests, and seeking 
fame instead of a heavenly prize for a heavenly calling. The salt of the earth 
has lost its savor when the preacher is leagued with the reporter. 

V-— THE FORMAL CAUSE. 

The Third, or Formal Cause, reveals the notes of the true Preacher: the 
third gift is Understanding, a wholly inward power conferring a just appre- 
ciation of the preacher's character and office. Let us again consult St. 
Thomas. " There are three things which the preacher of the divine word 
should possess: Stability, or Surety, so as not to deflect from the truth, 
since he who errs makes the faith void. Clearness of exposition, that he 
may not teach obscurity: and Profit, that he may seek God's glory and not 
his own" (Commentary on Matt. v.). Describing the very person of the 
preacher the Saint observes in the same place — " The lamp is the doctrine of 
preaching, wherein the fervor of spirit should appear within, and the light 
of good example without." These notes touch the message of the ministry, 
but there are yet others which more particularly emphasize the messenger. 
Holy Understanding should also reveal (i) the dignity of the office, (2) its 
usefulness for others, (3) the qualities requisite for its fitting discharge. A 
word upon each. 

(1) The dignity of the office. "We are ambass&dors for Christ's sake n 
(II. Cor. v. 20). "A sower went out to sow his seed. . . . The seed is 
the word of God" (Luke viii. 5). With this reflection comes the practical 
resolve — to live up to our exalted calling. " How can they preach unless 
they be sent?" (Rom. x. 15). 

(2) The profit of preaching. " Not by bread alone does man live, but by 



THE FORMAL CAUSE. n 

every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4). 
"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ" (Rom. 
x. 17). The profit of the ministry lies in this, that it is the dispensing 
of God's word as the bread of life, from which the faith and moral life 
of the flock depend. " He whom God has sent speaks the word of God " 
(John iii. 34). On the preacher's personal worth, that is, upon his 
depth of spirituality, and upon his ministerial worth, in a great meas- 
ure depends the vigor of life in his flock. Utility is simply the cor- 
relative of spirituality. Canon Oakley observes in his Priests on the Mission 
" the best of all sermons will be that which forms the most faithful transcript 
of an habitually religious mind." Our Lord, who is the model of preachers, 
says — " The mouth speaks from out the abundance of the heart " (Luke vi. 
45). St. Bernard bids priests not to be canals but reservoirs of spirituality; 
that is, retaining fully their own measure of spirituality while imparting it. 
The same is true of a vigorous mind. " A well instructed pastor implies a 
well instructed flock, if he have the zeal of God's house." But unfortunately 
the lamentation of Jeremiah resounds yet in some quarters — " the little ones 
have craved for bread, and there was no one to break it to them " (Lam. iv. 
4). With the decay of preaching from the sloth of pastors came the woeful 
ignorance and tepidity which engendered the great revolt of the sixteenth 
century, and history repeats itself. 

(3) The qualifications of a preacher in his own person which lend him 
personal worth are four, to wit — Probity, Modesty, Benevolence, and 
Prudence. 

(a) Probity, or uprightness of character, bearing an unsullied reputation 
beyond reach of suspicion. " Let a man so esteem us as the ministers of 
Christ" (I. Cor. iv. 1). Wickedness and worldliness are its opposites, which 
speedily bridle the once unctuous tongue. " But do thou, O man of God, 
shun these things" (I. Tim. vi. 11). Probity of life is our outward com- 
portment, living up to the exalted standard of doctrine which we preach. 



12 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

" He that shall have done (as well as taught) shall be called great in the 
kingdom of heaven" (Matt. v. 19), otherwise he is but as sounding brass. 

(b) Modesty, which is the flower of humility. Truly great preachers have 
all of them been the most modest and unassuming of men in the pulpit and 
out of it, wearing habitually the Modesty of Christ. Its opposite is pain- 
fully apparent in the forward manner of speech, loud-mouthed declama- 
tion, the consciousness of doing well. Posing of attitudes, the ever recurring 
/ of egotism, the bumptious assumption of authority amounting to personal 
infallibility, speaking not as teachers and pleaders but as dictators, pandering 
to public taste, bidding for popularity, etc., are all of them, solecisms against 
good breeding and the simplicity of the Gospel. The preacher should take 
to heart St. Paul's commendation of himself, and model his conduct accord- 
ingly. " When I came to you, I came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, 
declaring to you the testimony of Christ. For I judged not myself to know 
anything among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with 
you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling: and my speech and 
my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the 
showing of the spirit, and in power; that your faith might not stand on the 
wisdom of men, but on the power of God" (I. Cor. ii. 1-5). 

(c) Benevolence or kindliness, which is indispensable for winning men. 
To address men well one must love them. The Gospel enjoins this kindly 
feeling, and it is always crowned with success. Asperity of manner or 
speech repels, but sweetness draws men. It was our Lord's gentleness and 
loving manner which drew the whole world after Him. To be an apostle 
one must love, and be patient, and gracious, and devoted. The true apostle 
is charity personified, ever eager to toil and endure, but with that charity 
which "is patient and kind" (I. Cor. xiii. 4). Tact and kindliness go a long 
way toward securing success. Harken to St. Paul : " I abuse not my power 
in the Gospel. ... I became all things to all men that I might gain all " 
(I. Cor. ix. 18). The tone assumed by some speakers, notably in Mission 



THE FORMAL CAUSE. 13 

Sermons, is more calculated to repel than to draw sinners. St. Augustine's 
advice is golden : " With hatred of the sin, yet love of the sinner." Harsh- 
ness of address begets discouragement, if not positive aversion. Our Lord 
said of Himself: "Him that cometh to me I will not cast out" (John vi. 2>7)- 
Against the quality of benevolence is the disgusting practice of preaching at 
persons in public, instead of giving wholesome admonition in private. There 
is an instance on record of a preacher going so far in hot-headedness as to 
call down the curse of God upon a respectable congregation. This is simply 
deplorable; yet some preachers are so empty-headed as to boast of practically 
emptying a church: "whose glory is in their shame" (Phil. iii. 19). 

(d) Prudence,, a quality of an even mind which can never be too highly 
extolled. The prudent speaker keeps that adage well in view — in medio 
tutissimus ibis. This is shown by holding the middle path between coldness 
or asperity and over familiarity of manner, between Calvinistic pessimism 
and Established Church latitudinarianism as to doctrine. The prudent man, 
like a skilful angler, knows from experience what will exactly suit the oc- 
casion. There are moral topics best left alone with certain classes. To in- 
stance this : it is imprudent to propose doubts against Catholic dogma or 
practices, since the objection will, to some minds, prove more cogent than the 
answer. Thoughts of unbelief never foster true belief. It is imprudent to 
state how far one can go in violating a command or a precept without sin- 
ning mortally: it is more imprudent to allude to indelicate subjects before 
the young: yet common sense is not so common as it should be. This same 
quality of prudence will whisper inwardly and admonish when a subject or 
its treatment is not congenial with the auditory, and will promptly remedy 
the defect : this is simply tact. " Give us, O Holy Spirit, to have in all things 
of our ministry a ripe understanding." 



14 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

VL— THE MATERIAL CAUSE. 

The fourth cause is the Material; it is sound doctrine as the basis of 
sound teaching. He who would teach others must himself be learned. 
" To the learned and unlearned I am a debtor" (Rom. i. 14). Learning is of 
two classes, natural and supernatural. Supernatural knowledge is objective 
wisdom, and comes of the gift of Wisdom poured by the Holy Ghost into 
the mind to supply the lack of natural intuition, or else uplifting the mind 
to grasp truths of a higher order. The knowledge of God in Himself is 
the direct object of wisdom, begotten of an infused habit or quality in him 
who possesses it. The light begets the science, and this infused knowl- 
edge is either the fruit of predilection, or won by a life of prayer joined to 
purity of heart. Happy is the man who is thus " taught of God " as the 
apostles were, who becomes in his day the tuba Domini, the trumpet or 
mouthpiece of the Spirit, for such knowledge supplies the rest. Examples 
of this are to be seen in the Lord's Apostles, Doctors of the Church; 
Apostles of nations, and deeply spiritual souls, such as the Cure d'Ars. 
When God supplies such wisdom, then a divine unction is palpable on the 
lips, for the whole man is moved by the Spirit. The preacher's deepest 
prayer should be for Wisdom as a gift, since without it he fails to rise to 
the full perfection of his calling. 

Returning again to the lower or natural order, sacred science is also the 
outcome of a gift which is termed Knowledge. We acquire our store of 
science in the schools. No one has figured conspicuously in the Church as 
a preacher who had not previously acquitted himself well in the schools, 
for the terms Doctor and Preacher are synonymous. The discipline of study 
does not end with the scholastic curriculum; we are therein taught how 
to study, to fashion and wield our weapons; the pursuit of knowledge as a 
basis of preaching is the work of a lifetime. Truly great masters of Oratory 
preach seldom, but study unremittingly. The matter of Sacred Oratory is 



THE MATERIAL CAUSE. 15 

the whole body of revelation directly, and many branches of human knowl- 
edge indirectly. Under the Corpus Predicabilium may be comprised: 

1. The Sacred Scriptures. 

2. Sums of Apologetics. 

3. Moral Theology. 

4. Dogmatic Theology. 

5. Ascetical Theology. 

6. Christian Ethics. 

Other sciences give precision of knowledge, and may only be used by 
way of confirmation. 

I. The Sacred Scriptures. Since the subject of Sacred Oratory is God 
in His dealings with men, and man in relation to God, we have to study as 
matter for sermons both Testaments, and these both separately and rela- 
tively. Each has its distinct aim and purpose: then again the Old prefigures 
or foretells the New, while the New fulfils the Old. " Except you eat this 
book you can not instruct the children of Israel" (Jerome on Ezechiel). 

The Old Testament. This should, speaking generally, be used as a 
text-book of definite facts and sayings which influence man's belief and 
conduct. A general knowledge is indispensable as affording mighty scope 
and range. Its matter may be comprised more succinctly under four head- 
ings as a preacher's manual. 

1. Dogmatic Facts: as in Genesis and Exodus. 

2. Moral Precepts: Deuteronomy, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom. 

3. Affective Piety: Psalms and Canticle. 

4. Prophetic Sayings: chiefly Jeremiah and Isaiah. 
A brief word of explanation upon each. 

1. Dogmatic Facts. These comprise the rise of man, origin of the uni- 
verse, outlines of primitive history, the change in man's state owing to 
the fall. An intelligent reading aided by a Commentary is requisite as the 
groundwork. A blunder in any such matter would shatter the finest dis- 



16 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

course, and it must be borne in mind that the English public is well posted 
up in Biblical literature. Genesis and Exodus should be on the preacher's 
finger-tips as to accuracy. 

2. Moral Precepts, as influencing justification, are chiefly laid down in 
Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, and Ecclesiasticus. A moral counsel comes home to 
the people when couched in the inspired words much more than when given 
in the common currency of speech. The divine word has a sacramental 
power. The devout author of the Imitation of Christ has wisely observed : 
" The most solid preacher is the man who to prove or illustrate, can aptly 
apply the Scriptures," and this is equally true of the language employed. 

3. Affective Piety, which is the language of the heart, is heard at its 
best in the Psalms. The soul's outpourings of repentance, joy, gratitude, 
praise, entreaty, and the like, can never be voiced better than in the 
symphonies of the Holy Ghost, " Who spoke through the prophets :" for 
instance, the Jubilate Deo omnis terra, In te Domine speravi, Miserere mei 
Deus, Cum invocarem exaudivit me Deus, etc. The Psalm cxviii. contains 
the whole theology of the spiritual life, and Blessed Albert Magnus has 
drawn it out as such at great length: at the same time it is full of themes 
for sermons. 

4. Prophetic Utterances. To grasp the true idea of Christ one has to 
seek Him in the prophets. Isaiah and Jeremiah give the motives of His 
coming, the manner and time of His birth (Daniel) and death, His passion, 
inner sorrows, and divine mission. Our Lord appealed to the testimony 
which Moses bore to Him. The other prophets deal with minor points, 
but from the standpoint of material eloquence Isaiah and Jeremiah are 
sufficient. The chief types of Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the 
Church, should all be made familiar, as the transition from figure to 
personality in Oratory is most graceful and convincing, e. g., "As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up " 
(John iii. 14). 



THE MATERIAL CAUSE. 17 

The Old Testament in its entirety can be used as a boundless field for 
gleaning examples of wholesome moral points. The preacher has con- 
stantly to lay stress on God's Justice in risking sin, Mercy in condoning 
offenses, Power in performing mighty works, etc., all of which are profusely 
illustrated in Holy Writ. Sometimes a name may be substituted for a 
deed, and the list of moral heroes as well as the delinquents can be found in 
the same pages. Abel (innocence), Enoch (pleasing unto God), Noah 
(just), Abraham (faithful), Moses (meek), Jesus (chaste), David (sor- 
rowing), etc. Of all books in the Old Testament the most profitable to 
commit to memory is the Latin version of the Psalms, since every sentiment 
of the soul before God is to be found in them. 

The New Testament is, as a whole, vastly more important in itself 
and profitable as a study with a view to preaching. Like the Old, it may 
be considered as comprising: 

1. Dogmatic Truths, of deed or word. 

2. Moral Precepts and examples. 

3. Ascetical Counsels. 

4. Prophecy Fulfilled. 

It may be divided into two classes of books, the historical and ethical. 
To the first class belong the Gospels with the Acts, to the latter the Epistles. 

1. Dogmatic Truths. The basis of belief lies in the Holy Gospels: they 
are the written deposits of Faith, of which Theology is the scientific form. 
The Nature of God, the Trinity in Unity, Incarnation, Redemption, Judg- 
ment, Means of Salvation, Evangelical Counsels, Nature and Mission of 
the Church, etc., are therein taught authoritatively. The Sacred Books are 
of the weightiest import to the preacher, and should be ever on his lips, 
for they are a divine word, whereas the science of theology apart from them 
is purely human. Nor ought that other fount of authority — "the unwritten 
word," or Tradition — be overlooked. 

2. Moral Precepts: these are to be found abundantly in our Lord's 



18 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

words, notably in the parables, nor could nobler examples be set before the 
people than those so beautifully drawn in the Gospels. 

3. Ascetical Counsels, as of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience, Self-denial, 
Prayer, pursuit of Perfection, etc., are conveyed in the Sermons on the 
Mount, and at the Last Supper, and in the calling of the Apostles, or 
Christ's invitation to follow after Himself. 

4. Prophecy Fulfilled. This is readiest grasped by reading our Lord's 
Life through the aid of a Commentator, who at each stage recalls the clear 
foretelling, and accentuates its literal fulfilment. Christ appealed to it: e. g., 
"This day is this word fulfilled in me" (Luke iv. 21). This concludes the 
first fount of the Corpus predicabilium, viz., the Sacred Scriptures of 
either Testament, at once the first, and fullest, and weightiest. The appli- 
cation of the Epistles we relegate to Ethics. 

The second fount of preaching material should be looked for in Sums 
of Apologetics. The model Apologist is St. Justin Martyr: Origen against 
Celsus is the earliest: most of the early Fathers, and some of the later, are 
purely Apologists. The true Christian Apology may be defined as " a 
reasonable account of our faith:" on the other hand, a polemist is one who 
exposes error to confute it. St. Athanasius against the Arians uses the 
polemic style. There are many useful modern Apologists, notably such as 
have wielded the pen in defense of Revelation, the Divinity of our Lord, 
the Mission of the Church.* 

The third, fourth, and fifth founts are Theology according to its 
branches of Dogmatic, Moral, and Ascetical. The first, while securing 
immunity from error in the use of terminology, is rarely of service to the 
preacher, since the realm of dogma, especially of the Scholastics, is quite 
beyond the vulgar grasp. To the priest charged with the burden of a weekly 
sermon, the best possible field of matter is the Prima Sccundae and 
Secunda Secundae of St. Thomas' Summa Theologica; most editions give 

* Loca Theologica, Propaideutica, Defenses, Replies. 



THE MATERIAL CAUSE. 



19 



the places to be consulted for the year's Epistles and Gospels. What could 
be more profitable or entertaining than the nature of virtue and sin? An 
excellent Retreat for men can be given out of the Virtue of Religion and the 
Cardinal Virtues. The Catechism of the Council of Trent has a good 
synopsis of sermons upon all the useful topics, referring the preacher to 
their exposition in the body of the work. Since the aim of preaching is to 
make men better Christians, the preacher ought to set aside the subtleties 
and moot points of the schools, and go in for popularizing Moral Theology. 
Open the General Index to the Summa and the whole matter on any given 
subject lies before one in epitome: turn to the texts indicated and one has 
proof of argument and authority even more than sufficient. The art will 
then lie in popularizing the text, that is, in bringing it home to minds less 
versed in it than his own, for the speaker must be their brain. Ascetical 
Theology is of some use, slight indeed, in preparing matter for Conferences, 
or for Retreats : while storing the mind, it is singularly unpractical for the 
preacher, and ought to fall directly under the Confessor's domain. Such 
are the writings of St. Francis de Sales, Schram, Sa, Scaramelli, St. 
Alphonsus, and others who deal with the inner life. 

Lastly, we have to grasp and present Christian Ethics to the people. The 
higher school is Apostolic, the Epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, St. 
James, St. Barnabas : the lower school is the philosophical Treatise of 
Ethics usually read in the schools. 

It is useful to show how the natural law written in men's hearts, or in 
the laws of society, bears out the revealed law as to men's conduct indi- 
vidually and socially. Social questions have to be dealt with, the rights of 
parents and rulers, Education according to conscience, the human pro- 
clivities from atavism, and a hundred more moral and burning questions 
of the day, are all set forth to hand ; the sower has but to scatter the seed. 

This concludes our first part, which deals only with the nature and causes 
of Sacred Oratory. 



20 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

Taking notes. A most profitable work, if rightly done, (i) Choose 
some convenient method. (2) Keep to that one method. (3) Keep up 
the practice of note taking. 

Plan. Have three books: One for plans of sermons for Sundays and 
festivals; another with plans of moral subjects apart, and leave space for 
about four plans on each topic; let the third book serve as a repository of 
extracts to be used as occasion serves. This third book ought to be divided 
into two sections, each arranged alphabetically, the first containing sayings, 
e. g. } extracts from Holy Scriptures, Spiritual writers, Holy Fathers, or 
passages of note generally; the second should be devoted to anecdotes and 
illustrations. Read with a view to compiling matter for sermons. Let the 
notes be short, examples curtailed, and the source set down as well for after 
reference. 



THE VARIOUS CLASSES OF ORATORY. 21 

Second Part* 

THE PRACTICAL ART OF PREACHING. 

" The surest test of an Orator is to be reputed as such by public opinion." 
(Cicero.) 

The complete scheme of practical preaching can be comprised under a dozen 
headings. 

1. The Various Classes of Oratory. 

2. Analysis of a Discourse. 

3. Invention and Disposition of Arguments. 

4. Standard Qualities of a Sermon. 

5. Expression or Language. 

6. The Use of Tropes and Figures. 

7. Written and Extempore Sermons. 

8. Delivery and Gesture. 

9. Homilies, Prones, Conferences. 

10. Dogmatic and Moral Discourses. 

11. Panegyrics and Catechizing. 

12. Missions and Retreats. 

L— THE VARIOUS CLASSES OF ORATORY. 

Five such classes are in the main recognized by pulpit orators. First comes 
the Deliberative, whose sole aim is to convince by weight of studied argument : 
this kind is reserved for the " set sermon," and needs to be elaborately worked 
up. If its burden be the solid exposition of some truth, one has to aim at con- 
centration of ideas with precision of expression, while guarding against 
seeming to degenerate into a scholastic exercise. Written dissertations hot 



22 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

from the schools will not do as sermons : they must be worked up so as to 
reach the heart as well as the mind. 

Of Controversy. Should the matter in hand be controversial, either because 
of the subject itself, or in reply, it is always wisest to adopt the expository 
method, and adhere to the Apologetic rather than the Polemic form. Little 
good, if any, comes of slashing attack, biting retort, or ridicule; if a weak 
position has to be exposed let it be done with due consideration for an 
opponent, if our aim be to win and not slay. The opponent of to-day in 
good faith may be our brother in arms in God's appointed time. Never allude 
to or presume bad faith : even an unguarded expression in a sermon has the 
effect of thinning the offertory on special occasions. The fisher of men must 
not wilfully scare the souls whom God's providence draws within Catholic 
walls : the mildest word against such a proceeding is this — it defeats its own 
end. Where persuasion is the end in view the preacher must " exhort in 
sound doctrine," and hence mean what he says and say openly what he means, 
thus imparting his own deep convictions. The Deliberative method marks 
the solid preacher, and is the highest form of pulpit eloquence. 

Secondly, there is the Demonstrative method of preaching, which deals less 
with scientific formularies of truth, and relies more on examples and homely 
illustrations to enforce moralities. Our Lord's teaching in parables is an 
example of this, clothing the doctrine with the garb of story, as in the 
Prodigal Son's return, He preaches repentance. 

The Third Class is known as the Homiletic, and consists in an exposition 
of the gospel of the day. There is the strictly Homiletic form, in which each 
member of the gospel is expounded according to Scriptural exegesis: there is 
also the less rigid form which deals with but one or a few points in the gospel, 
and forms the familiar Sunday Prone. The best examples of Homilists are 
St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Bede, St. Jerome, St. Thomas,* in their 
expositions of the gospels; it is advisable to consult the best Commentators 
*The Catena Aurea and Sermons. 



ANALYSIS OF A DISCOURSE. 23 

of the present day as well, so as to secure the true literal sense, since the 
Holy Fathers sometimes busy themselves only with the mystic interpretation. 

A Fourth method is called the Composite, which is simply a happy blend- 
ing of the three preceding, but there is a danger of the speaker identifying 
himself with his style and becoming " mixed." It is the most trying form 
for the public patience and understanding, and generally proves tedious, while 
to the tyro it is a veritable pitfall. 

A Fifth method is advocated under the title of the Scholastic or rigidly 
doctrinal, such as a sermon befitting Trinity Sunday or a dogmatic Course of 
Sermons, but practically it resolves itself into the Deliberative. An offshoot 
of this is the Catechetical method, of which we shall speak in due course. 
In order to secure success it will be of great moment for the preacher to 
recognize his own best form and to cultivate it, to weigh beforehand the 
style adapted to the occasion and subject and auditory, since an error herein 
is disastrous in its issue. 

IL— ANALYSIS OF A DISCOURSE, 

Every sermon is made up of the Matter, the End, and the Proposition. 

1. The Matter should be some definite doctrine neither indulging in plati- 
tudes, novelties, nor too far-reaching scope. This matter is then set forth 
by a threefold class of argument, either proving it from undoubted sources, 
such as authority or reason ; or illustrating it so as to confirm the truth, by 
examples from Holy Writ; or moving to excite the auditory to its ready 
acceptance. A true orator can sway the passions as well as the minds of 
men, and soothe as well as stir. This is the triple appeal to the mind, the 
imagination, and the passions. 

2. The End, or what we propose to achieve in our address. This will depend 
upon the matter. A dogmatic sermon will have for its end the simple exposi- 
tion of doctrine for conviction's sake. A moral discourse has no such aim : it 



24 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

is absurd to dogmatize over moralities which are already accepted by the con- 
science. The end in view is to secure amendment of life, to send the people 
away better on this point, and all must lead up to this issue, using the 
Demonstrative method. An example to the point would be a sermon on the 
Pharisee and Publican, the Unjust Steward, the Ten Virgins. "In cauda 
medicinal " 

3. The Proposition regards the way of treating the subject in hand. It 
must be grave and fitting. Its gravity makes it worthy of being listened to, 
and excludes frivolity and shallowness : its fittingness implies that it suits the 
speaker, whether a prelate, simple priest, or missioner ; fitting those addressed, 
as adults, sinners, members of a Guild, or nuns ; lastly, fitting the season, the 
place, the occasion. These three points make a homogeneous whole. 

The Text. Next the preacher turns to his text, which either the gospel of 
the day or his common sense will suggest. It is vulgar to court singularity 
in the choice of a text. A text however must be chosen, and ought to be 
chosen with one of three views. (1) As a theme of exposition, a thought to 
be developed, a point to be enforced. (2) It may be made quite subservient, 
and rank only as a point of departure : St. Thomas does this occasionally in 
the Summa Theologica, as an opening to an article. (3) It may rank as 
the point of attainment, the whole sermon leading the people up gradually 
to its fulfilment. It is advisable not to run away from it altogether, but to 
weave it skilfully through the narrative. The next thing to be thought of is 
to secure the Plan. 

The Plan can be disposed of under these brief considerations. 

1. Need of : to secure precision of matter as well as clearness of thought, 
starting and ending at given points: its absence brings rambling ideas, vague- 
ness of thought and expression, with no definite point or fruit as issue. 

2. Benefit of : it aids the preacher's memory in delivery, and the listener's, 
who can carry away something definite. 

3. Variety of: avoid the everlasting sameness, like the one, two, three of 



ANALYSIS OF A DISCOURSE. 25 

chimes. Three points are conventional but not essential, two will do, and 
one well handled is enough ; but there must always be one leading thought 
or chief point. Variety gives pleasure, like the varied time in a musical 
composition, especially when a flock hears the same voice all the year round. 
For example, let us consider variety on a common topic, such as the Holy 
Rosary. One plan will suggest the blending of mental with vocal prayer, 
another will put forward the position held by Mary in the Mysteries, a third 
deals with our Lord's thoughts or actions, a fourth scheme considers the 
Rosary as a most popular form of devotion, another sees in it the most richly 
endowed Confraternity as to Indulgences, while a final may regard it his- 
torically as the preservative of faith in penal times, and the companion of 
saintliness. It is with sermons as with meat served up ; the variety of the 
dressing lends appetite and relish. Here we have six leading themes, or 
sermons, complete in one solid point. If we attempt to group them, one must 
lead and the other be subordinate, in which case the less prominent idea 
should precede and lead up to the greater. Some of the ideas will work out 
well side by side, others certainly will not. It is an easy matter to work up 
a capital sermon out of any one of the above points, difficult to harmonize 
two, and hopeless to work off three, for such would be preposterous 
in association and length. Much skill is shown in knowing what to leave 
unsaid. 

Another pleasing variety is secured by transition, passing from the type to 
the reality, observing the same points, e. g., the Manna and the Holy Eucharist, 
(1) descending from heaven, (2) giving delight, (3) sustaining life in the 
wilderness. Or we may keep within one point, as the raising up of the brazen 
serpent to save from death, and the upraising of Christ upon the cross. Or we 
may invert the order and give the reality first, and then develop it from its 
prototype, e. g., " a greater than Elias is here." 

4. Consistency of: shown in the fair distribution of the parts in the plan, 
not unduly dwelling upon one at the expense of the rest, like a quaver flanked 



26 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

by two minims. Some sermons resemble tadpoles, they are mostly head, and 
then fall away. 

5. Method of : this will depend wholly upon the kind of discourse, whether 
oration, prone, or homily. A pure homily has no points at all ; it is a running 
comment upon the text of the gospel, as shall be shown in its due place. 

6. Fault of : ars artis est celare artem, so let the plan not be too apparent, 
especially where the points admit of subdivision ; the skeleton needs to be well 
clothed, otherwise it appears a starveling. 

The Parts of a Discourse. — After the Text and the Plan come the Parts 
of a Discourse. 

The integral parts of a complete discourse are five, in the following order 
of development. 

The Exordium or opening speech, to prepare the hearers for what is to 
come. St. Augustine, in his work upon " Christian Doctrine " (book iv., 
chap, iv.), assigns three aims to the Exordium, viz., to make the listener well 
disposed, attentive, and docile. It may be Simple, that is unpretentious; or 
Insinuating, courting a hearing, as the opening of Shakespeare's Oration in 
the mouth of Mark Antony over Cesar's body ; or Pompous, as in the Funeral 
Orations of Bossuet and Massillon ; or Vehement, as in Cicero's Oration 
against Catiline or the Philippics of Demosthenes ; Temperate, or Judicious ; 
or lastly Abrupt, passing in few pregnant passages to the subject in hand. 

The body of the discourse comprises the Proposition fairly exposed in the 
first point, Confirmation in the second, and its full Argumentation (or Re- 
futation of the contrary) in the third. In a purely scriptural address these 
would be the Literal sense, the Mystic, and the Moral. 

The final section is the Peroration, or winding up, and this should be well 
studied, for in its application lies the gist of a sermon. St. Alphonsus assigns 
three portions — the Epilogue, Morality, and Invitation: these are better hit 
off as Recapitulation of the general argument, Practical Conclusions 
drawn, and Final Exhortation. In sermons known as " In Memoriam," or 



INVENTION AND DISPOSITION OF ARGUMENTS. 27 

" Month's Mind," or on the funeral occasion, the Peroration may gracefully 
take the " Valedictory " form ; the peroration of then Provost Manning's 
sermon upon Cardinal Wiseman is a gem of its kind. 

HL— INVENTION AND DISPOSITION OF 
ARGUMENTS* 

Invention measures out the various classes of arguments employed, while 
Disposition assigns their place in the composition of a sermon. Take, by way 
of illustration of Invention, a sermon on our Lord's Divinity, a mystery 
calmly explained away by some churchmen in high places. With the Sacred 
Scriptures and Theology or Loca Theologica to hand, one can easily construct 
half a dozen sermons on the subject. The miracle of the Resurrection alone 
is sufficient for the purpose, as (1) Foretold, (2) Fulfilled, (3) By Christ 
Alone: or (1) The Divine Character of the Act, (2) Its Divine Mode of 
Accomplishment, (3) Its Divine Assurance. 

The preacher may quit Intrinsic evidences if he list, and appeal only to 
Extrinsic, such as (1) The Placing of Guards to Prevent its Fulfilment by 
False Declaration, (2) The Visible Presence of Christ seen and touched, 
(3) The Manifold Appearances. 

Another plan of broader scope will be to show (1) God's Attributes Incom- 
municable to Creatures, such as Omniscience and Omnipotence. (2) Christ 
exhibiting the same. 

Arguments may be either intrinsic, drawn from the subject, or extrinsic, 
as testimonies from without, according to the loci employed. There can be 
but three sources of argument ab intrinseco. (1) Those found within the 
subject as belonging to its nature, e. g. } the Definition, Genus, Species, Form, 
Enumeration of integral parts, Kindred Terms, and Notation, or what is 
implied in a name. 



28 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

2. Formalities not existing in the nature, although allied with the 
nature: e. g., Cause, Effect, Antecedents, Consequences, Adjuncts. 

3. Comparative qualities, which form no part of the subject in itself, but 
only as compared with others, e. g., Relation, Likeness, Contraries, or any 
other points of comparison. One of these by itself will furnish a solid basis of 
argument, as being deduced from the same subject directly or indirectly, but 
there is a sliding scale in descending degree between the three classes 
enumerated. 

Extrinsic sources are simply testimonies from without, and may be either 
divine or human, such as God's testimony of miracles, or men's witness to 
holiness of life. Intrinsic loci should always be preferred in selecting argu- 
ments for a discourse. Sometimes these are beyond the common grasp of the 
people, in which case the extrinsic are to be made more of. In a panegyric 
upon a Doctor of the church, e. g., St. Thomas of Aquin, the extrinsic will 
carry greater weight of evidence and conviction if the preacher chooses to 
dwell upon the encomiums passed upon the Doctor by Sovereign Pontiffs, 
Councils, and the learned generally, thus showing the rank held by the subject 
through successive ages of history. 

Of Refutation. It may fall out that the preacher's theme is not the building 
up of a line of proof, but rather the confutation of unsound doctrine, as of 
heresy, or that the sophism of " non causa ut causa " is hurled against the 
Church; as, for example, the laxity of faith or morals in a Catholic country, 
a scandal in times past or present, or an abuse of any kind, imputing these 
evils to Catholicism. There are more ways than one of putting down the 
like, or of confuting falsehood in doctrine or assertion. Three courses are 
open : Denial, Distinction, or Retort. In confuting errors of doctrine, such 
as " baptism does not confer spiritual regeneration, and is but a sign of faith," 
or — " sin is not taken away by Christ's death, but simply not imputed " (the 
errors of Baptists and Lutherans), the course of Denial must be followed. 
Denial, like every other negative, does not admit of proof positive, conse- 



INVENTION AND DISPOSITION OF ARGUMENTS. 29 

quently it must be upheld by substantial proof of the opposite. A maxim 
must be stripped of its false sense, and clothed with the true. St. Thomas' 
precept on the point ought to be strictly applied. " Whoever attempts to 
prove a mystery by natural reason inflicts a double wrong upon the faith, 
both by lowering the faith, and against its availableness for drawing others to 
the faith. Truths of faith are to be upheld by authorities in arguing with 
such as admit the like authorities ; with others it suffices to show that there 
is no impossibility in the teachings of faith." Hence by denial is not meant 
merely flat contradiction, but the denial reasonably grounded on the clear evi- 
dence of the opposite. Or let us consider a purely spiritual duty neglected for 
frivolous excuses, the duty of prayer. One does not pray because ignorant of 
its worth, or necessity, or delights of heavenly conversation. Another neglects 
prayer, being disheartened at the constant current of distractions. A third 
fails to pray because prayer is not answered as he wants, and at his own con- 
venience. The hollowness of such excuses must be set forth, and, after 
explaining the true aspects of prayer, the conclusion drawn must be denied, 
at the same time showing its unsoundness. The best form of substantiating 
denial of fact is to use the " post hoc sed non propter hoc " argument. 

The second course is to use Distinction : this scholastic method commends 
itself in dealing with propositions which admit of a true and false interpreta- 
tion, such as the " Our Advocate with the Father." The speaker's main 
endeavor should be to sift the chaff from the wheat. The same course must 
be employed in explaining points of religion misinterpreted by those outside 
the Church, such as Indulgences, Veneration of Relics, Invocation of Our 
Lady, etc. 

The third and least dignified process is the Retort polite : but tu quoque is a 
poor weapon and needs very gentlemanly handling. " Abuses there are, I 
admit, but our religion is not their cause. If we look at members of your 
own denomination, similar foibles are to be seen, yet no reasonable man sets 
down your faith as their cause." " Have we no evidences of harsh persecu- 



30 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

tion at the hands of Protestants here in England, while proclaiming liberty 
of private judgment? " Or, to quote Cardinal Newman : " Thank God, we have 
kept no record of Protestant scandals " — a scathing rebuke. Or again : " You 
claim the right of private judgment, and discard the shepherd to whom Christ 
said, ' Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.' " I retort : " Your position is scrip- 
tural, but unsound: 'All we, like sheep, have gone astray; each one has 
turned aside into his own path.' " 

Disposition follows in the wake of Invention and deals with the sequel 
of arguments used as grounds of proof. Some proofs are more telling in 
themselves, others more obvious to the listener; judgment will dictate to 
which the greater prominence should be given. The Logical order should 
be observed, and that in two ways, (i) By opening out with the more taking 
argument, followed by the more solid; by preferring the intrinsic to the 
extrinsic ground of proof: (2) by following the natural sequel of reasoning as 
far as possible, as in the Sorites form of argument. " Virtue is a great and 
good thing : what is both great and good uplifts a man : what uplifts perfects : 
we ought to covet whatever perfects us as men : then should we strive to be 
virtuous, and we shall be both great and good." Ideas should succeed one 
another (1) by natural connection, (2) by easy sequence, (3) by proceeding 
from what is of less to what is of greater import: the evils to be guarded 
against are, inconsequence of sequel, and introduction of matters of little 
moment to the point. Again, argument should precede illustration as by 
point of anecdote. A right use of Disposition serves to secure conviction; 
its wrong use weakens the weapons of Invention. 



STANDARD QUALITIES. 31 



IV — STANDARD QUALITIES, 

The standard qualities of a sterling honest sermon are three — it should be 

POPULAR, PLAIN, STIRRING. 

A popular preacher is one who can draw and hold an audience. St. 
Augustine says that the listener needs to be pleased in order to keep him. 
Such popularity of sermons is secured by the theme chosen, the language in 
which it is presented, and the duration of the discourse. A subject need not 
be selected because it is popular, since unpalatable truths have to be preached, 
but the art lies in making the same palatable. Some minds seem wedded to 
prosaic themes, and such a reputation wrecks popularity.* Again, the style 
employed secures popularity, and the most taking topic can be butchered. 
Thirdly, the sermon should be short, as a rule; all the sermons of the Holy 
Fathers are brief. A long winded man can never be a popular speaker; his 
reputation secures absence. Given a pleasing presence, good matter, finished 
style, and decent length, a preacher is assured of popularity. 

The sermon should be plain speech, using the various forms of illustration, 
such as Metaphors, Parables, Similes, etc., and shunning pedantry. 

It is pedantic to indulge in scientific terms, or in archaic forms of speech, 
or in words of portentous length, of foreign coinage, of dubious meaning. 

Pastoral Sermons to country people should, above all qualities, be plain, 
bringing down the great truths to the level of the rustic mind, shunning 
argument, copiously illustrating, frequently repeating, enlivening by story. 

The Power of Anecdote. A well told story with a telling point is in- 
valuable in a mission sermon, and useful in most discourses of a moral nature. 
Sermons to children and simple folk require illustration, but the anecdote 
must be well put. There are three classes of anecdote: (1) Purely Sacred, 

* " A dry sermon can never be a good one." — Blair. 



32 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

such as those drawn from Holy Scripture or the lives of the saints; (2) 
Domestic, drawn from daily life or a priest's experience; (3) Profane, culled 
from history. In the narration the whole tone of voice and manner should 
be changed to secure emphasis : a homely conversational tone is best. The 
Holy Fathers occasionally quoted epigrams and the poets, but only such ex- 
tracts as befitted the theme. A story marred in the way of telling is rather a 
blot than an ornament. 

A popular sermon needs, lastly, to be stirring. Animation may come from 
the preacher's fund of spirituality; it is then termed unction. Sermons by 
saints were not always clever, seldom polished, but always unctuous, and so 
they drew men by this divine influence.* A sermon from the heart must be 
full of unction : it does not imply noise or vehemence, but fervor : quiet 
preachers are the most unctuous, as a rule. But there is the human animation 
likewise, which comes of conviction and passion. The Greeks distinguished 
two classes of passion : Pathos, the vehement passion to stir, the language of 
storm, and Ethos, the mild, subtle, winning emotion. Passion fills a discourse 
with a living soul. Bossuet shone in the use of Pathos, Massillon in Ethos. 
Orators have also availed themselves of the power of wit and humor, appeal- 
ing to the risible as well as to the emotional faculties. The medieval preachers 
frequently indulged in pleasant sallies, but as satire upon prevailing follies 
of fashion ; nor is the practice unheard of in our own days. It is a dangerous 
expedient, unless well handled, and may lower where it seeks to elevate.t 
Good humor is infectious; a skilful speaker can keep his audience well in hand 
by a timely sally of wit, and when pathetic does not prolong the agony. 



* The Venerable Cure d'Ars and B. Grignon de Montfort. 

f See Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, " Jocular Preachers." 



EXPRESSION, OR LANGUAGE. 33 



V-— EXPRESSION, OR LANGUAGE. 

Language is the medium through which the speaker communicates his 
thoughts and sentiments. As the painter, conceiving some lofty ideal and 
having all the cunning of his art to execute, would fail of success by neglect 
of employing the best medium of pigments, so the orator who neglects lan- 
guage fails in the material portion of his work. Expression comprises 
elegance, composition, and dignity. Elegance comprises tone and purity. 
(a.) Tone regards the elevation of style, of which there are three degrees — 
the familiar, or conversational; the middle, or elegant; and the sublime. 
(b.) Purity regards the elements of style employed in the written or spoken 
address. First of these qualities denoting purity is simplicity — simplicity of 
terms employed and of structure of the composition; and first a word as to 
simplicity of terms. Our language is sprung from three sources: the Saxon 
proper to the soil; Norman French, which has become naturalized by eight 
centuries of usage, and Latin, which remains an alien and appeals to the 
learned few. Simplicity of style demands the use of Saxon or Norman 
French words, the simplest, everyday terms of our common speech; latin- 
isms are not to be employed, as being above the common grasp. Here is a 
specimen of what not to say : " The rustic intelligence can not comprehend 
the scintillation of stellar luminaries nor the solar orbit." Here is the same 
in simple English : " The peasant's mind can not grasp the twinkling of the 
stars nor the sun's rounds in the sky." Simple words strung together form 
pure sentences. The English Bible is a classic in this sense. All abstruse 
terms must be shunned, and latinisms or graecisms eschewed. Purity must 
pervade the structure of sentences, of clauses inserted, and qualifying state- 
ments : the enemy of simplicity herein is ambiguity, by overloading the phrase 
with qualifications, or clash of two negatives. " I will not hesitate to say 
that the present spirit of enterprise is not likely to abate." 



34 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

The second note of purity is clearness, to the exclusion of obscurity or 
vagueness. Words susceptible of various meanings should be so hedged as to 
exclude all senses but the one intended. The use of Contrast serves to estab- 
lish clearness. Periods which sound well as delivered are often found to be 
faulty when analyzed. Mixed metaphors are fatal to clearness : putting in 
opposition things which are contraries strip the context of all right sense, e. g., 
" There are footprints on the sands of time which the hand of man has not 
effected." 

The third note is picturesqueness. The art of word painting, describing 
scenes with local coloring, or with details of action and emotion, serves not 
merely to adorn, but to elucidate a subject, and impress it deeply upon the 
soul, forming the connecting link between the intellectual and emotional 
faculties. A sermon on the Crucifixion lends itself admirably to this. 

Composition, which is the second feature of expression, supplies rules for 
the formation of individual sentences according to period, and order, and 
connection : but this belongs strictly to rhetoric and not to practical oratory. 

The third component part of expression we have termed dignity, and con- 
sists in the proper application of tropes and figures of speech, which requires 
separate consideration. 

VL— THE USE OF TROPES AND FIGURES. 

Figure is the ornament of language. When a speaker conceives his subject 
strongly, then his fervid imagination clothes his language with the warmth 
of imagery. Such figures must flow naturally from the flush of passion or 
imagination, and from the character of the subject in hand. It is idle to force 
them ; they must be the free flow of fancy ; nor will every topic lend itself to 
them. Like every other ornament, Imagery must not be too labored, nor too 
conspicuous, nor superabundant. Such faults rob it of its charm and beget 
aversion or weariness; what is meant to delight oppresses. The jackdaw 



THE USE OF TROPES AND FIGURES. 35 

strutting with a borrowed peacock's glory-spread is the image of the speaker 
who plunders figures which his own unimaginative mind can not spontaneously 
beget. Figures are of a twofold kind, of speech and of thought: the first 
is termed a trope, the second a figure: in the first the word is changed from 
its natural sense to a symbolical use, as " light on darkness pour," for 
" instruct our ignorance " ; in the second the true meaning is preserved, but 
the figure lies in the turn of the thought, as when Dryden compares the Cath- 
olic Church to the milk-white hind. 

Use of Figures i. They extend the power of language, since figure can 
hit off accurately what word can not. Thought has its shades of color, which 
the bare expression can not convey. 

2. Figure elevates style beyond commonplaces. Nobler sentiments call for 
nobler utterance: figurative speech clothes them in splendid apparel as befits 
their rank. " Care haunts : hunger stalks through the land." 

3. The use of figure delights the listener with a dual pleasure otherwise 
lost, and in no other wise to be had. It is pleasant to linger over a melody 
by itself, but add to it the concerted harmonies, and the pleasure is intensified. 
Trope and speech are similarly wedded, since every trope is founded upon a 
true or fanciful analogy between things. " Like some frail blossom on a 
slender stem, she drooped: she sickened not, but faded from the earth, like 
summer's rose plucked by some hidden hand." How vastly superior in tone 
and pleasure is this sentence, to the same stripped of ornament : " She died 
of anemia, very young." " Like some silver-laden shower, dropt from heaven 
hour by hour, sound the bells of Venice on the sea." 

4. Figures serve to give a clearer insight into the main thought, the acces- 
sory idea supplementing the leading : they impress thoughts indelibly. " A star 
shall arise from Jacob." " Benjamin is a ravening wolf, Juda a lion's whelp." 
"As the hart pants for the running brook, so does my soul yearn for thee, 
my God." 

Classes of Figures, i. Metonymy. This first class is founded on primary 



36 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

relations, such as cause to effect, container to the contained, sign to the thing 
signified, a passion for its object, a name for a work. Substituting cause for 
effect, or the contrary, yields commonest tropes of speech, such as, " Men 
loved him for the grace that was in him," meaning his virtues, the outcome 
of grace; "You will bring my gray hairs in sorrow to the tomb," meaning 
old age. " He wields not the sword in vain," the symbol of authority. " So 
help me, heaven, my country has forsaken me," meaning " God help me, since 
my fellow-men have abandoned me." " My love is come." " Call a hansom." 

2. Metaphor,, or the figure founded on resemblance, which is merely an 
abridged comparison. In the fiftieth chapter of Ecclesiasticus we read this 
encomium of Simon the High Priest : " In his days the wells of water flowed 
out, and they were filled as the sea above measure. He shone in his days 
as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at full, and ac 
the sun when it shineth, so did he shine in the temple of God. As a rainbow 
giving light, as the flower of roses in the spring, as a bright fire and burning 
frankincense, as a massy vessel of gold, as an olive tree budding forth, or a 
cypress rearing itself on high . . . when he went up to the holy altar he 
honored the vesture of holiness. . . . And about him was the ring of his 
brethren, as the branches of palm trees they stood round about him," etc 

A few plain rules guide our employ of this figure. 

(i) Let it be Simple — that is, neither strained nor mixed. 

(2) Let it be Single, avoiding multitudinous comparison, in which respect 
the above text is faulty. 

(3) Let it be Pleasing, especially to the moral sense. 

(4) Let it be Elevating, shunning vulgarity. 

(These are from Cicero, De Oratore, Lib. iii. c. 53.) 

3. Allegory, which is nothing more than the sustained metaphor. It may 
be protracted through the whole work, as " The Faerie Queene," " The Court 
of Sapience," " The Pilgrim's Progress," or it may form but a brief narra- 
tive, " The Vision of Mirza." In this form the Parable is a short Allegory, 



THE USE OF TROPES AND FIGURES. 37 

provided that it contains two distinct meanings, the literal and figurative, 
which all Parables do not. An Allegory may be a symbolic speech, howso- 
ever brief. 

" I love the stately stream, since it recalls 
Life's devious passage to eternity. 
Oh may our tide of days as smoothly run 
Into the ocean — bosom of God's rest." 

The Enigma or Riddle is a minor Allegory, e. g., Samson's Riddle to the 
Philistines : " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came 
forth sweetness." His retort is a metaphor : " If you had not ploughed with 
my heifer, you had not found out my riddle." 

4. Synecdoche, or the figure of inversion. 

(1) Putting genus for species: "Avoid liquor," "He fell in action." 

(2) Inverting species for genus: " To earn one's bread." 
Euphemisms belong to this class : " He twined the vine leaf in his hair," 

for " He got drunk " ; " Entered into rest," for " died." 

(3) Naming a class by an individual : " A Solomon, a Judas, a Croesus, a 
Magdalen." 

(4) Substituting an abstract for a concrete, as a quality for a person, or a 
title for an individual : " Youth is hopeful," " Impudence spoke up," " His 
Holiness said." 

Other figures of less frequent usage are the hyperbole, or exaggerated 
speech ; irony, meaning the contrary, e. g., " He is a genius " ; personification, 
" Nature pleads, Religion tells us " ; and finally apostrophe, addressing the 
departed, or the unseen present, as God and the angels. 

Rule. — Since figure is purely ornamental, let it follow the rule of ornament : 
" Simple, in good taste, and not overdone." 



38 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 



VIL— WRITTEN AND EXTEMPORE SERMONS, 

No universal rule can be laid down as to whether sermons should belong 
to either class: the whole matter is a subjective one, dependent upon taste, 
abilities, and time at one's disposal. Young preachers ought to write out 
the entire sermon, revise it, learn it by heart, and deliver it faithfully: to 
continue the practice through life is commendable in all, a necessity for some. 
It is a burden which sorely taxes the priest tied down to a sermon, if not 
two, on all Sundays : hence the proficient speaker may readily dispense with 
writing in extenso, but ought to set down his theme, its limits, points, proofs, 
texts, and illustration, trusting the expression to the moment of delivery. 
An extempore sermon does not mean an unprepared one: this would be to 
court disaster by talking nonsense, forgetting the thread of argument or 
having none, " eddying round in verbiage, vain repetitions, and feeble and 
garrulous fluency." (Coleridge.) 

The usage of writing the complete sermon has also its drawbacks. Cardinal 
Newman observes in a letter of the year 1825 — " I am persuaded, as Whately 
suggested, that sermon writing by itself has a tendency to produce a loose, 
rambling kind of composition, nay, even of thoughts." Delivery of sermons 
by heart is likely to destroy spontaneity and natural coloring of expres- 
sion: besides, what if the memory prove treacherous! The sorriest of 
fiascos is the breakdown, or the painfully prolonged pause, or the conclusion 
wound up in silly commonplaces. 

The palm of merit falls deservedly to Extempore Preaching, provided the 
preacher's standard of excellence be sufficiently high. It has these distinct 
advantages over the written sermon: (1) It admits of adaptation on the 
spur of the moment, of special application, of change in style or thought. 
(2) It saves the physical strain of days of toil in committing to memory, 



DELIVERY AND GESTURE. 



39 



and agony on the day lest the best passages should slip, as they usually 
do. (3) It enables the speaker to take fire from his auditory and impart 
it. (4) It is readiest prepared: half an hour's preparation, pencil in hand, 
and then half an hour's meditation as such to give it spirituality. The 
ready speaker is a gem in an emergency: the practised, ready speaker can 
mount the pulpit at a moment's warning and do the subject and himself 

credit. In the town of , in Gloucestershire, a select preacher was 

secured, mounted the pulpit, gazed helplessly round for some minutes 
while fumbling in his pockets, retreated to the vestry and was seen no more. 
He had written carefully his sermon, went to church unconsciously 
without it, couldn't think of the opening passages, found his mind a total 
blank, and got upset. Such a disaster could never befall the extempore 
preacher. To attain this proficiency the preacher should write the main 
portion of a sermon, then lessen the manuscript gradually until he feels 
confidence, keep to familiar topics, and in course of years launch out boldly 
into the deep. A sermon for a special occasion should be entirely written 
and learnt: such was the practice of Bourdaloue, Massillon, Bossuet, and 
others nearer our own day who stand in the first rank of orators. 



VIIL— DELIVERY AND GESTURE. 

Delivery deals only with the use of the voice. Gesture, or composure of 
body, bears the same relation to it which the frame does to the picture; it 
sets it off. Each requires separate consideration. 

I. Delivery, or Pronunciation, according to Demosthenes, is the whole of 
Oratory. We should call it rather the soul of Oratory. The whole subject 
can be but outlined on paper. Its exemplification calls for living utterance 
to do justice to its meaning. 

Delivery covers the Voice and the Speech. 



4 o SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

( Pitch. 



Voice ■< 



Quantity. o , ( T ' me ' 

Ouality. S *> eech j Pause - 

Tone. ( Utterance - 



The primary aim in speaking is to be heard : when a man can no longer be 
heard by half the auditory it is high time for him to retire upon his 
sexagenarian laurels, if he has any; if not upon laurels, then upon his 
dignity. The preacher must be heard, and agreeably heard: Pitch and 
Quantity secure the first, which is essential. Quality and Tone secure the 
second, which is the polish. All that has been written upon voice production 
for singing applies equally to public speaking. 

There are three sorts of voice in every speaker, (i) The Natural, em- 
ployed commonly in speaking, with its range from the lowest to the highest 
natural pitch. (2) The Falsetto (false voice), which carries the range 
still higher by artificial means. (3) The Full or Orotund (ore rotundo), 
imparting fulness and body to the Natural, used only when effort requires 
it, as in public speaking. Every speaker has his own pitch of natural voice, 
he — like the singer — knows his compass and has his proper key; this serves 
as the dominant note to be modulated in the ascending or descending scale. 

There are four scales of pitch : 

(1) The Concrete, in which there is no appreciable variation in the 
voice : it answers to the musical " recitative." 

(2) The Diatonic, in which the transitions are mainly of whole tones, 
like the musical "gamut." 

(3) The Chromatic, or succession of semitones. 

(4) The Tremulous, made up of shades of tone. 

The speaker should open out with his natural pitch, otherwise the voice 
seems strained. In the course of the narrative he will pursue the Diatonic 
melody, consisting of no more than three successive tones in the ascending 
or descending scale. Each successive rise is known as Concrete pitch, and 



DELIVERY AND GESTURE. 41 

the place which each syllable takes either above or below the preceding 
is termed the Radical pitch. The Current Melody admits of great variety, 
but the Phrases of Melody are confined within a strictly limited number 
of concrete tones, practically within three above and as many below the 
dominant note or natural pitch. The following six phrasings cover most 
modulations of voice : 

(a) The Monotone, (b) Falling Ditone. (c) Rising Ditone. (d) Fall- 
ing Tritone^ (e) Rising Tritone. (f) Triad of the Cadence: a seventh, 
known as Alternation, is but the succession of Ditone s or Tritones. Take 
the familiar hymn, "Jesus, my God, behold at length the time." The tune 
is so familiar that it can safely serve as illustration. 

Monotone, " Jesus :" Falling Ditone, " my God :" Rising Ditone, " be- 
hold:" Alternation, "behold at length:" Falling Tritone, "pardon me:" 
Rising Tritone, "I will ne'(ver):" Triad of the Cadence, "no, never 
more." 

The Chromatic scale (semitonic) lends itself to the expression of grief, 
complaint, pity, plaintive entreaty. 

The Tremulous scale or function, running through waves of intervals, 

second, fifth, third, or octave, conveys sentiments of mirth, joy, derision, 

exultation, and the like, when joined with the smooth concrete intervals of 

interrogation, command, surprise, or scorn. It is the laughter of speech. 

The Concrete scale is adapted chiefly to short yet telling sentences, and 
emphasizes the passage. 

Quantity goes with pitch, and must be regulated accordingly: it is the 
distribution of the volume of sound. It may be loud, medium, or low; any 
abuse of the extremes is distressing to the listener, such as the shout, bellow, 
roar, or piping falsetto, or faint finals. 

But one has to be heard agreeably as well as easily, for which quality and 
tone must be employed. 

Some voices are by nature attuned to Oratory, possessing pleasing quali- 



42 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

ties; such are the full, the soft, the steady, the musical, the tender voice: 
others again are rough, nasal, harsh (like a saw on a nail), thin, tremulous, 
jerky, forced. Let art improve nature. 

Tone is the language of the emotions. When a man is angry, nature 
impels him to use the wrathful tone, in sorrow he employs the plaintive, 
in mirth, the joyful, etc. In the pulpit the speaker should be as natural 
as possible. " Hold the mirror up to nature," as Shakespeare bids us. 
By proper use of Quality and Tone a preacher readily wins his way to 
success. 

The second thing to consider is the Speech, or articulated Voice; this 
is regulated by Time, Pause, and Utterance. 

i. Time may be rapid, medium, or slow: the extremes are bad. Modera- 
tion in speed is required for distinctness of utterance, for creating im- 
pression, for catching the theme of argument. Rapidity and drawling 
detract from the dignity and weight of an address. The preacher who bolts 
like a colt is many degrees worse than the even paced utterer of platitudes, 
and about as bad as the slumber-inducing heavyweight who drawls his 
diapason. Hear Quintilian's precept : " Promptum sit os, non praeceps 
moderatum, non lentum." In large buildings one must speak slowly. 

2. Pause. There is a threefold use of pauses, (i) To emphasize, (2) 
To mark the sense in an involved sentence, (3) To relieve the speaker. 
Except the pauses be skilfully managed the stress of emphasis is misplaced, 
the wrong meaning is conveyed, and the speaker gets blown. To distress 
the lungs is to distress other people's ears, and preaching becomes hard 
labor. The pauses may be long, as between divisions of a sermon, or shorter 
to cut up the members of a phrase: great strength of emphasis demands a 
short pause before the weighty words are delivered. One has to draw breath 
during as well as at the close of a sentence: a bad speaker descends pumped 
out, just as the bad runner gets blown. Pause with the sense, and have the 
sense to pause. 



DELIVERY AND GESTURE. 



43 



3. Utterance has its three notes : 

(1) Distinctness. 

(2) Propriety. 

(3) Emphasis. 

(1) Distinctness of articulation contributes more than loudness to being 
heard and understood. Speak deliberately, and so articulate that no syllable 
may be lost to the farthest removed person in the assembly, especially final 
words of a sentence. Many speakers drop their finals, swallow their vowels, 
and chew their consonants. As an example, the preacher roars Our Lord's 
warning: " You shall seek Me, you shall not find Me, and you shall . . ." 
nobody knows what. Take care of the consonants, and the vowels will take 
care of themselves. 

(2) Propriety regards proper educated pronunciation, avoiding provincial- 
isms and solecisms, wrong aspirates, no aspirates, final r where there is none : 
Asiar, Africar, and Murrikay. 

(3) Emphasis. This does not simply mean "force": it is rather "prom- 
inence," the expressive distinction of a word or a syllable by one or more 
of the specific modes of Time, Quality, Force, Pitch. Misplaced emphasis 
upsets the whole meaning. He said : " Saddle me the ass," and they saddled 
him. Lay the stress upon the point of judgment: "God so loved the world 
as to deliver up His only begotten Son;" this sentence can receive the stress 
in four places. Its true position depends upon judgment or feeling of the 
speaker. Emphasis, like ornament, must be used sparingly and with good 
taste.* 

II. Gesture. Oratorical Action is the just and elegant adaptation of the 
outward man to his inner sentiments. The advice which Shakespeare puts into 

* The seven deadly sins of speech are these : pompous drawl, emotional 
quaver, melodramatic roll, artful falsetto, snivelling whine, pious cant, and 
ranting tone. 



44 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

Hamlet's mouth* should be the standard rule. " Be not too tame, but let 
your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to 
the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty 
of nature; for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose 
end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere, the mirror up 
to nature," etc. The chief law in preaching is to be natural; as Faust says: 
" No heart will take fire if the spark does not come from the speaker's heart," 
and St. Augustine says : " If you want me to weep, you must first weep 
yourself." 

Gesture in General. St. Francis Borgia lays it down that gesture should 
have eight qualities, as follows :t 

1. All gestures should be free, to the condemnation of iron rules of fashion. 

2. They should be noble, to the suppression of all vulgar tricks of manner- 
ism, such as thumping the pulpit, stamping, thumping the breast, rocking to 
and fro, etc. Action is noble when graceful. 

3. They should be manly, and not timid. 

4. Natural, as opposed to artificial movements of an automaton; also prop- 
erly timed. 

5. They should be hearty, not languid nor half dead. 

6. They should be holy or edifying, not stagy. 

7. Gesture should be grave, not simpering in voice, courting favor by smiling 
and beaming, assuming coaxing tones and attitudes, or playing the fool by 
burlesque : such gravity is called for as becomes the holy embassy of our min- 
istry, and excludes all attempts at acting. 

8. They should be somewhat slow, not overhasty and abrupt. 

All of these can be resumed under the four notes of Energy, Variety, Sim- 
plicity, and Grace. Whether from artifice or necessity let the opening be 
always studiously gentle, so as to command attention. 

* Act iii, scene ii. 

t De Rationc Concionandi, cap. iv. 



u*e. 



DELIVERY AND GESTURE. 45 

The Body. Study to preserve dignity in its attitude. Stand erect and 
firm, so as to leave freedom of action: one may occasionally approach, or 
incline slightly, toward the auditory, but never crouch, nor lean on the pulpit, 
nor lean over it, nor (if tail) sit on the back of the pulpit. Graceful inaction 
is even more difficult than action: it lies in maintaining a graceful posture 
once assumed. Never turn round to address those behind or on one side: 
the range of the eye is the range of , speech, and it is better to be heard all 
through by most and not at all by a few, than to be heard imperfectly 
by all. 

The Hands. The right should be constantly used, the left but seldom, its 
place of repose is on the pulpit, or occasionally on the breast. Both hands 
should be employed to convey warm emotions. Keep the elbows well out 
from the body. When emphasis is required, raise the right hand diagonally 
from left to right, throwing it forward, with fingers open and curved. The 
hand must never cross the perpendicular line of the body: move each from 
side to centre, or from centre to side. In action show the palms and not the 
back of the hand: keep it away from the body as a rule, or low if in front, 
and it must never hide the face; seldom should it rise above the shoulder. 
In milder passages the movement should be from the elbow, in freer action 
the whole arm should speak from shoulder to finger-tips. The action ought 
to precede the speech slightly, especially in slow, emphatic passages, but the 
emphatic stroke must be in exact accordance. The principal action is the 
downward stroke of the hand, indicative of force. Use an open hand, not the 
action as of blessing with three fingers: one upturned finger is ridiculous. 
To express "granting" or "concession," one or both hands ought to be 
quietly waved in a lateral direction, but don't shrug the shoulders, or pretend 
to shiver. For " entreaty " clasp the hands before the breast, then lower them 
quietly to their original position. To express " appeal " they should be 
warmly thrust forward with upturned palms : for " description " follow 
nature's bent. Hasty movements of the hands smack of conjuring, up and 



46 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

down sawing motion is ungraceful; the most graceful motion is admitted to 
be the oblique. 

The Face. This should speak with the dumb language of expression. " Thy 
face, my Thane, is as a book, where men may read strange matters." It 
rivets the attention most, and is the seat of the soul in an address. All the 
passions should have free scope and play thereon : the face should be the 
living chart, displaying fear, hope, mirth, sadness, and the rest, hence it all 
lies in Expression. The key to the position is the eye. Who does not know 
of the power of the eye, the speaking, tearful, merry, scornful, passionate eye ! 
Its flash speaks more than words can convey. The eyes should not be fixed, 
but move easily round. Remembering that it is one and the same soul which 
animates the mind and body, the preacher should give free play to its power 
in the body, that gesture may supplement voice in the expression of thought. 
Dry and insipid talkers would do well to consider these pungent remarks 
of Sydney Smith as addressed to them : " To this cause of unpopularity of 
sermons may be added the extremely ungraceful manner in which they are 
delivered. The English, generally remarkable for doing very good things in 
a very bad manner, seem to have reserved the maturity and plenitude of their 
awkwardness for the pulpit. . . . Why are we natural everywhere but 
in the pulpit? No man can express warm and animated feelings anywhere 
else with his mouth alone, but with his whole body; he articulates with every 
limb, and talks from head to foot with a thousand voices. Why this holo- 
plexia on sacred occasions alone? Why call in the aid of paralysis to piety? 
Is it a rule of Oratory to balance the style against the subject, and to handle 
most sublime truths in the dullest language and the driest manner? Is sin 
to be taken from men, as Eve was from Adam, by casting them into a deep 
sleep? or from what possible perversion of common sense are we able to 
look like field preachers in Zembla, holy lumps of ice, numbed into quiescence, 
and stagnation, and mumbling? " 



HOMILIES, PRONES, CONFERENCES. 47 



DC— HOMILIES, PRONES, CONFERENCES. 

1. The most ancient form of sermon was the Homily, taken in the rigorous 
sense of the term. A portion of Holy Scriptures was read, and then com- 
mented upon verse by verse : thus it meant "explicatio literalis et moralis " 
of the full text, and was nothing more than a disjointed Scripture lesson. 
This form of discourse may be employed occasionally, as in fully developing 
the Epistle or Gospel of the day, but it has a serious drawback, it lacks 
unity of concept and point of application. It is the simplest in form; the 
most difficult in getting up. The preacher's task is to clear away the obscurity 
which it has pleased the Holy Spirit to cast as a veil of mystery over the 
written word, so that it is a hidden word. The writings of the Fathers are 
the Gospel unveiled, hence one has to study profoundly the various senses 
attached to the letter, and weigh the gist of conflicting senses or interpreta- 
tions. This will prove always a laborious and not always a profitable task. 

2. The second form of Homily divides the sermon into two distinct sec- 
tions ; in the first the chief points of the lesson are explained, in the second 
its practical application is studied and applied. This is a decided gain on the 
points of unity and profit. 

3. The perfect form, according to modern usage, is to select one theme or 
leading idea, and develop it as in the set sermon, yet in simple form : this is 
the ordinary Sunday Prone, the clearest, simplest, most striking explanation 
of the word of God. It secures unity of thought, order of development, and 
forcible application. The best of models is Massillon. It is not so much 
explanation as application that the preacher must keep in view. 

4. Conferences. The Conference is a homely form of address, consisting 
in the development of one main thought. Such should be occasional addresses 
to Guilds, or in Retreats. Strike the note of Simplicity in thought and 



48 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

language and anecdote. When called on to " say a few words " to children 
in school or on any emergency, deliver a short Conference. 

X.— DOGMATIC AND MORAL DISCOURSES- 

"What shall I preach about?" is the question which often rises unbidden 
to our lips. The whole subject matter can be comprised in St. Paul's four- 
fold charge to priests, " Instruct, Reprove, Exhort, Comfort." Having 
chosen one of these aims, select a fitting point of doctrine, either of belief 
or practice. 

Dogmatic Discourses comprise the burden of faith, such as God's nature 
and attributes, the Holy Trinity, the Creed, Providence, End of Man, Re- 
demption, etc. Such great thoughts make a man eloquent : they are gold in 
the nugget, which the speaker must fashion as seems best. Never suggest 
the possibility of doubt in matters of faith, yet respect the seal of mystery 
which God sets upon it : simple yet accurate exposition of the article of 
faith, its scope, God's design in imparting it as a manifestation of Himself, 
and the homage paid to Him by bowing down the mind reverently, all enter 
into a true dogmatic sermon. It soonest discloses a precise yet well stored 
mind, since any one can moralize ; but the scholastic body of the sermon 
needs setting off with devout sentiments and useful application. The fruit 
tastes sweetest plucked from the tree, so too those proofs direct'y drawr. 
from the Scriptures are more inviting than the same couched in cold, 
scholastic form. It is not proof but explanation that is called for : the 
grandeur of the subject calls for more elevated tone of thought and speech. 
In the general disposition it will be found best to copy St. Thomas' method, 
showing how the truth in point is worthy both of God and man : e. g., the real 
presence, divine sonship in baptism, forgiveness of sin, etc. Study the Summa 
for the disposition of arguments ; any article would make a model discourse. 
The general outline of a dogmatic sermon should comprise (i) solid proofs 



HOMILIES, PRONES, CONFERENCES. 49 

well developed, (2) pious sentiments so as to elevate the heart, (3) practical 
outcome of resolve. Corde creditur ad justitiam. 

Moral Sermons are commoner than dogmatic, and rightly so: "this do, 
and thou shalt live." As a preliminary, the preacher should study well the 
human heart, its aims, ambitions, fears, joys, selfishness, etc. All virtues 
should be illustrated by Christ's example : preach Christ, and Him crucified, 
that is, holiness and penance as expiation for sin. Instead of wasting words 
over bald phrases upon virtue or vice, launch out into bold description and 
paint the drunkard, the hard hearted, the avaricious, the proud, the selfish, 
and their winning opposites. Show up vice as ruinous and detestable, virtue 
as true gain and ever lovable. There is a harvest of materials to hand 
in the Prima Secundae and Secunda Secundse of the Summa, and no 
maker of sermons can ever hope to rival St. Thomas in the preciseness of 
thought and expression, fulness of matter, and elevation of spiritual tone; 
while as to method he is both synthetic and analytic. Est non tantum 
doctrina sed et disciplina. Preach uniform piety, fidelity to lesser points of 
duty, social obligations, and show how holiness can be marvellous without 
being miraculous, insist on amendment. 

Rules : 

1. Have a definite aim in each sermon. 

2. Go straight to the point so as to secure conviction. 

3. Secure right application of sound principles. 

4. Avoid exaggeration, such as laxity or severity in maxims, and highly 
improbable stories in narrative. 

5. Don't theorize, nor talk platitudes, nor waste time over one long pro- 
tracted story or harrowing details, and beyond all these — don't be long 
winded. 

N. B. — In special sermons the Occasion need not be the subject, e. g. t 
Charity, Education, etc. 



5 o SACRED ELOQUENCE. 



XI —PANEGYRICS AND CATECHIZING* 

The Motive of all panegyrics is to kindle a holy rivalry in men's hearts; it 
is not empty praise of the departed, but praise held out to allure the living. 

The Matter may comprise the leading features of a life, the sayings or 
writings, the character, work, or place held in his day. It should not extend 
to mere outline of story; that is biography. The character of the subject 
should be elaborately drawn out. Some preachers have a sermon which they 
thrust like ready made clothing upon any saint: e. g., a panegyric upon St. 
Ignatius is made to do duty upon St. Dominic, with a few modifications; a 
very censurable practice. 

The Form of a panegyric gives it its true stamp. It is well to draw a 
portrait; this is done by describing the chief features of a career, e. g., St. 
Peter of Verona: (i) a model of religious observance; (2) an apostle in 
his ministry; (3) a martyr. A common outline would be, (1) piety, (2) 
learning, (3) zeal. One great feature alone may suffice if properly handled, 
e. g., St. Dominic a true reformer, or St. Thomas patron and model of stu- 
dents, St. Ambrose model of bishops, St. Magdalen type of repentance. It 
is a grave error to multiply contrast, e.g.,.m a panegyric on St. Dominic to 
assign these points (1) St. Benedict, (2) St. Dominic, (3) St. Ignatius, 
showing three true reformers: the mind is led away from the main subject. 
Father Burke's outline is a masterly one : he makes bold to compare the 
heart of St. Dominic with the Heart of Christ consumed with three loves: 
(1) for His Heavenly Father, (2) His earthly Mother (Mary), and (3) His 
bride the Church. One should discriminate between an occasional and an 
annual panegyric; in the latter case the story is well known and calls for 
skilful adaptation. It is not a panegyric to preach upon " The Triumph of 
Grace," or "The Changeless Kingdom," etc., and use the saint merely by 



PANEGYRICS AND CATECHIZING. 51 

way of illustration: on the contrary, preach the saint and point the moral. 
The end to be well kept in view is to entertain, still more to edify and 
glorify, most of all to create a feeling of high resolve to imitate, since all 
saints are set forth by the Church as models for our imitation. 

The Italian Style is all praise of the saint with but brief application to 
the hearers ; the French is quite the opposite : the mixed variety proves best 
to English ears. 

Catechizing. This is a most solemn obligation, binding parish priests, 
and a profitable duty for all priests. Before catechizing let a man learn his 
catechism, that is, study higher catechisms to be able fully to expound the 
simpler manual for children. There is the Catechism of the Council of Trent, 
the Catechism of Perseverance, Catechismus Brevissimus of Augustine Hun- 
nseus given in most editions of St. Thomas' Summa, and the Teacher's 
Catechism. A work of special interest is Teacher's Handbook to the Cate- 
chism, by the Rev. A. Urban. It is complete, practical, and exhaustive, 
though never overstepping the limits of the schoolroom. 

Let the explanations be simple, accommodated to young or uneducated 
minds: by frequent repetitions the truths are impressed; by constant ques- 
tioning, and changing the words of such questions, the right answers are 
drawn out. Let the catechizing be pleasant, illustrated with stories or ex- 
amples of familiar objects, since young minds soon tire: a priest can come to 
their level without loss of dignity but with great gain of power as the sower 
of first seeds. Don't stint words of encouragement and praise, be always 
gentle, patient, winning, and the seeds will of a surety ripen into a harvest 
of faith. 



52 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 



XIL— MISSIONS AND RETREATS* 

Missions. The Instruction should be couched in homely language devoid 
of any oratorical form or Scriptural proofs, this brings out the sermon in 
telling contrast. The Sermon should be powerfully constructed and ener- 
getically delivered, dealing with the Four Last Things, Sin, Sorrow, Purpose 
of Amendment, Rule of Life, Avoiding Occasions of Sin, etc. One anecdote 
in each suffices, but let it be telling and to the point. When the matter of 
the sermon is awe-inspiring let the peroration be soothing: this was the way 
of the prophets. Soften down menaces by divine assurances of pardon, re- 
proaches by praise : temper the matter furthermore by the manner, acting 
rather as a father than as a judge, so can one be terrible yet consoling. One 
has to aim at solid conviction to secure lasting amendment, rather than at 
creating a passing furor which soon spends itself, and leaves no permanent 
impression for good. 

Retreats. The matter and the manner draw the lines of demarcation 
sharply from a Mission. 

1. The Manner. Retreats are preached sitting, the whole tone is sub- 
dued, gesture almost uncalled for beyond play of the hands. The whole at- 
mosphere must be highly spiritual, walking, as one does, on a higher level : 
the whole manner should breathe Gravity, Sweetness, and Sincerity. 
Gravity brings solemnity in fulfilling a holiest duty, Sweetness allures and 
wins ready souls, and rouses torpid ones, Sincerity begets confidence, when 
listeners realize that the preacher is speaking ex intimo cordc. Thoughts 
should be interspersed with affections, with ascensiones cordis, hence the 
prayerful manner is the most efficacious. 

2. The Matter. This will depend upon the auditory. There are Retreats 
to Priests only, to Priests who are religious, to religious women, to active 
and contemplative Orders, to Religious Congregations of either sex which 



PANEGYRICS AND CATECHIZING. 53 

have not the full status of religious life, to Tertiaries living in the world, to 
youths in college aiming at the priesthood, to scholars of either sex, to 
teaching bodies, and private retreats for individuals. Again, there is the 
duration of the exercises, ranging from three to ten days; and the motive 
of making a retreat, from obligation of rule, or from some special reason, 
and with one definite purpose, as preparation for profession or ordination. 
To each class should be assigned the common duties of the Christian life, 
supplemented by the obligations of their respective states. The great truths 
have to be preached to religious as well as to the laity. 

A. — To Religious. The matter must comprise the Vocation or End of 
life, the Vows, Sin and Tepidity with their remedies, the duty of Prayer, 
Meditation, Holy Mass, etc. The preacher can map out his matter as he 
pleases, provided he covers the entire ground: to dwell on one thought 
throughout, e. g., " the life of prayer," proves monotonous, and not over- 
profitable: it is always well to have from four to six schemata of Retreats. 

Here is one of many feasible plans, providing for a morning and evening 
meditation and afternoon Conference: 

I. Day. Opening Meditation, "The Grace of a Retreat," showing (1) the 
aim, (2) the work, (3) the spirit of the Retreat. 

II. Day. Image of God in holiness : Religious Life : Conference on Work. 

III. Day. Religious Character: Perfection through Charity: Conference 
on Recreation. 

IV. Day. The Holy Rule: First Obstacle, Temptation: Conference on 
Spiritual Reading. 

V. Day. Second Obstacle, Sin: Third Obstacle, Tepidity: Conference on 
Silence. 

VI. Day. First Remedy, Penance : Second Remedy, Prayer : Conference on 
Divine Office. 

VII. Day. Third Remedy, Holy Eucharist: The work of grace: Con- 
ference on Practical means of purifying the soul. 



54 SACRED ELOQUENCE. 

VIII. Day. Chastity: Obedience: Conference on Poverty in spirit. 

IX. Day. Humility : The Sacred Passion : Conference on Fraternal Charity, 
or Our Conventual Home. 

X. Conclusion : Address on Perseverance, or on The good odor of Christ. 
B. — Clergy Retreat* embrace obligations toward one's own soul, then 

toward other souls: the aim, work, and spirit of the ministry: dangers and 
safeguards. 

C. — To Active Orders. It suffices to work in the particular scope of the 
Order into certain meditations, or to devote one address to the point, such as 
teaching. 

D. — To Youth in General. Short and interesting lectures on their state 
of life suffice : avoid suggesting evil to young minds, and deal out much honey 
of encouragement. 

Since the preaching of retreats is the highest form of the ministry, it re- 
quires elaborate preparation of reading, note-taking, study of the best models, 
and mastery of the Pauline Epistles. In conclusion, let the neophyte who 
mounts the chair of truth remember that very old adage : 

Ascendens sine labore 
Descendet sine honore. 



MOV SB 1904 



